Butterfly sighting
| Oct 9 2017 |
Sylvia Edlebeck
Location: McKee Park, Fitchburg
Sachem 
Sachem 
Sachem 
Peck's Skipper 
Peck's Skipper 
Painted Lady 
Monarch 
Fiery Skipper 
Fiery Skipper 
Clouded Sulphur |
After an errand in Fitchburg, I stopped at the Monarch Way Station (and the adjacent zinnia patch) in McKee Park to see if the Painted Ladies were still around. They were. But the main event of the day was the skippers--lots of skippers. My numbers may be on the conservative side because the skippers were everywhere. Who'd have thought I'd ever say "oh, it's just another Sachem"? Besides the zinnias, there were Mexican sunflowers, plus red and white clover. There were many skippers alighting on the white clover, so counting (and identifying) those was hard. The other unusual thing was a painted lady landed on red clover and stayed there for quite awhile.